MICKELSON’S TORREY PINES VISION TAKING SHAPE

The plans are somewhere between the drawing on a napkin stage and full computer 3D. They are merely lines on paper now. Some are sketches laid over photographs.

Phil Mickelson’s vision for a renovated Torrey Pines North Course is taking shape, and the first glimpse of those ideas was made available to the public last week in the tent that will serve as the media center for next week’s Farmers Insurance Open.

For three hours on Thursday, interested golfers streamed in to see what Mickelson’s plans are for holes Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on the North. On hand to answer questions were city golf managers and the architects who ultimately will carry out the desire of the San Diego native and PGA Tour star.

Mickelson, who opens his tour season this Thursday in the Humana Challenge, didn’t attend the informal showing, but he said as part of a conference call on Monday, “I hope that people get it that we’ll be able to do what we want to do aesthetically and it won’t affect the playability. I was encouraged by our first meeting that everybody understood what we’re trying to do. I don’t think there’s a downside.”

Mickelson appeared at a public meeting on Dec. 18 to passionately make a case for what he can do to make the North Course more appealing and playable for the average golfer while also presenting a sterner test for pros who play one round a year on the track during the Farmers.

The photos and drawings of the first three holes are consistent with that vision. There are fewer bunkers, wider fairways, shorter distances from several of the tees and an aesthetic flair that will add around-the-course flavor inspired by the sandy red cliffs that rise from the coastal brush.

“We’re not going out there and blowing up this golf course,” said Mike Angus, the director of golf design and development for Phil Mickelson Design. “We’re really subtly changing it and hoping to prove that to everybody, so that 10 years from now they will say, ‘Gosh, why didn’t we do this sooner?’ ”

Each of the first three holes has various characteristics of Mickelson’s ideas for change:

• At the par-5 first, current fairway bunkers that are closer to the white tees will be eliminated, with new bunkers requiring carries of 278 and 310 yards for the pros. Where most amateurs would land, the fairway would be widened and raised to provide better views of the ocean. The green would be lowered by 8 feet to show off more water.

Most significantly, three bunkers that guard the front of the first green would become one smaller bunker to the right-middle, while Angus said a bank on the left side would kick balls toward the hole. There is a swale to the short right of the green that golfers might find if they go for the hole in two shots.

• The short, par-4 second could become more interesting with the white tees moved up to 280 yards and the blacks playing at 320. Mickelson’s challenge to his peers: Go for it.